The Path to Valta
by Luana Araceli
Summary: Kenshin decides after Kyoto he cannot stay in Tokyo. He tells Sano he's going to a village Hiro directed him to. Due to unforeseen circumstances, Sano goes with him. Once there, both of them must re-evaluate everything about life, love, and each other.
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter One**

Kenshin stood outside the Akabeko, staring up at a starlit sky. It had only been a few days since he'd healed from the injuries he'd received fighting Shishio, but he was eager to be on his way. Everything that had happened in Kyoto had just driven home to him how dangerous it was going to be to stay in Tokyo. While it was true that no one had been killed, the fact that his friends had followed him into mortal peril without even understanding what they were up against terrified him.

They all accepted that he had been a manslayer in the past, but the only one who understood even a semblance of what that past entailed was Sano. He'd seen the way Kaoru looked at him, the distaste in her eyes, every time he got close to flipping his blade. She didn't understand that part of his life. She never would.

Yahiko idealized him, turned him into this grand swordsman that Kenshin could never be. Not in more than name, at least. Because he could talk for eons about enforcing justice and protecting the weak over the strong, but the truth was that during the revolution he'd thrown his sense of right and wrong out the window. To be an effective assassin, he'd had to discard his morality. Trying to pick it back up, to turn back to the ideals he'd had before the war, was turning out to be rather difficult.

Then of course there was Dr. Gensai and the children. The doctor may have seen some hard things in his life, but those children were innocent. It was only a matter of time before someone ruthless came after Kenshin and took those small girls as bait. And that was a thought he couldn't stand. To be responsible for the death of truly innocent children-it was unthinkable.

Megumi was even worse. She'd been used and pushed around for years. Kenshin knew she would end up with more of the same if he stayed in Tokyo so that it could happen. There was no one he wanted caught up in his problems less than her. She deserved to live peacefully.

Kenshin sighed. There was only one person he was going to tell he was leaving, and that was because he knew Sanosuke would follow him to the ends of the earth until he found him. After leaving him behind before going to Kyoto, Kenshin had sworn to himself he'd not forget the promise he'd made to Sano again. He rubbed his jaw, the remembered pain of Sano's fist ghosting along the edge of it.

He straightened as he felt Sano's ki coming towards him and turned to face the fighter. "Sano," he greeted lightly.

"Yo." Sanosuke stepped up beside him, falling into the rhythm of Kenshin's walk when the wanderer began moving down the street, away from the Akabeko and in the opposite direction of the dojo.

"I'm leaving," Kenshin said simply.

Sanosuke angled his body towards him, staring down at him with a mix of anger and confusion. "Why?" he asked.

"I can't stay here anymore. Shishio was dangerous, but I have enemies more powerful than him. Karou and Yahiko will continually risk their lives to try and help me with those problems and they will get themselves killed. I won't allow them to throw their lives away when they don't understand that they're doing so."

Sano frowned at him. He hated to admit it, but Kenshin had a good point. "Why not just talk to them?"

Kenshin stared at him for a moment before turning to face the road. "They aren't going to understand because neither one of them can truly accept the fact that I was an assassin. They find ways to gloss over it, to blot it out, to pretend it doesn't matter. But the truth is still there, hanging like a shadow over all of us."

"The two of them didn't have to face the chaos of the revolution," Sano said quietly. "But they understand enough to know that you sacrificed yourself to help bring the Meiji era into existence and they don't need more than that from you."

Kenshin smiled sadly. "It's not about what they need. It's about what I need."

At Sanosuke's frown, he added, "I can't continue to live in a place where I am forced to constantly deny the assassin that lives inside me and the instincts that go along with that."

"Why not?"

"Sano, you lived as a fighter-for-hire for years. You don't get paid for fighting anymore, but I know you still seek out fights when you go out gambling."

Sanosuke flushed. He hadn't known anyone knew about that. It wasn't terribly surprising that Kenshin knew, but it was a bit awkward to have it brought up in conversation.

"You have that outlet. I get some relief when I have to fight men like Shishio because that feeling of kill or be killed is all I knew for years. But having to protect Kaoru and the others makes it impossible for me to fight the way I truly do, because I can't stand seeing the disgust in their eyes."

Sanosuke sighed softly. He understood Kenshin's reasoning, but he still didn't like it. "Where will you go?"

Kenshin lifted his hair, unclasping a twine necklace that he'd kept hidden since he'd received it in Kyoto. He held it out towards Sanosuke, who picked it up gingerly in his hand. It was a small wooden circle with a strange symbol engraved on it, a mark slashing it open through the center. "My master gave that to me before I left Kyoto. He told me that though I'd learned the final technique of Hiten Mitsurgi, that there was something keeping me from being whole. He spoke of a hidden village and said that they could help me if I was willing to leave everything behind." Kenshin took the necklace back and put it back on his neck.

Sanosuke stared at him for a long heartbeat, then moved his shirt aside so that his own necklace was visible in the faint moonlight. "I don't know what your master was thinking," he said, "but he gave me a similar token."

Kenshin looked at the wooden symbol around Sanosuke's neck with undisguised surprise. "Did he say anything to you?" he asked curiously.

"He said that even an idiot apprentice like you would know what it meant. He wasn't very forthcoming," Sanosuke mused.

Shaking his head, Kenshin had to agree with that. "I don't even know what my symbol means. Yours is different-it's upside down and there is no slash through it. But it is obviously of the same mold. My only guess is that he meant for both of us to visit the people he spoke to me about."

Before he could stop himself, Sano was grinning. "So you're not leaving me behind!"

Kenshin smiled back. "I guess not."

Sanosuke let out a whoop of joy, completely unabashed by his behavior.

Kenshin allowed it for a few minutes, but he needed Sanosuke to understand just how permanent his leaving was going to be. If the fighter planned on joining him, neither one of them would be coming back to Tokyo. "Sano, when I leave, I'm not ever coming back here." They had left town some time ago and were walking through the country.

Sano stopped and threw himself against a tree, staring at Kenshin, who'd stopped as well and was simply waiting for his response. There wasn't really anything for him in Tokyo. At one point he'd thought maybe he would find a home here, but he hadn't. Kaoru and Yahiko put up with him purely because he was Kenshin's friend, though they might never say it to his face. He was too outspoken and too much of a brawler to really fit into the niche they'd made for themselves. "Ok," he said.

Kenshin raised an eyebrow. "Ok?"

Sano nodded. "There's nothing for me in Tokyo." He traced the pattern engraved in the wood circle hanging from his neck. "Besides, I'm curious. Who are these people and why does your master want us to see them?"

The only answer Kenshin could give that question was a shrug. All he knew for sure was that his master had been very insistent, sure that the people of the hidden village he'd told him about could help restore his spirit. He didn't really know what that meant or what part of his spirit needed restoring, but his master would never send him to a strange group of people without reason.

"When are we leaving, then?" Sano asked.

Kenshin smiled. "At sunrise. It is a long journey."

"I thought you said this village was hidden."

"It is." Kenshin flipped his own wooden symbol over and showed the back of it to Sano before sliding it off. He pulled out a piece of paper no more than an inch across that was crammed full with writing. "This is the map."

Sano peered at it, frowning. "That's not even legible."

Kenshin laughed. "It's written in a code only I can decipher. I doubt my master wanted this village's location falling into the wrong hands. He was fairly adamant that I protect this with my life."

"It's a piece of paper," Sano said, voice flat with disbelief.

Kenshin nodded, smiling. He wondered what Sano would say if he knew how many times he'd put his life on the line to deliver important papers to the right people during the revolution. He shook the thought away. Now was not the time to be thinking of that.

Sanosuke made a disgusted noise and folded his arms over his chest, glaring at the small piece of paper in Kenshin's hand. They were going to set off to find a hidden village with directions only one of them could read and a very high probability that they would lose the slip of paper the directions were on.

Kenshin laughed. "Don't worry so much, Sano. I already memorized the directions."

Sanosuke scowled at him for a solid minute before he relented. "Fine. Did your master say anything else about these people?"

"He did."

"Well?" Sano said, tone impatient.

Kenshin startled. He hadn't realized Sanosuke wanted to know what those words had been. "He told me that these people were like no one I had ever met and that if I decided to seek them out, that it would be necessary to throw away all my beliefs on how people are supposed to live."

Sano frowned. "What exactly did he mean by that?"

"I have no idea," Kenshin said. "But I can't stay in Tokyo and endanger everyone anymore. And I can't think of anywhere else to go. It seems this hidden village is as good a bet as any."

"But to throw away all our beliefs seems a bit extreme," Sano said doubtfully.

"Perhaps," Kenshin acknowledged. "But it's where I'm going."

"I'm not letting you go alone."

Kenshin smiled. Having to become a wanderer again was a burden, but knowing that the one friend he'd managed to make who didn't shy away from his past was coming with him almost made it worth the pain it cost him to leave the rest of his friends behind.


	2. Chapter 2

They set out the next morning, leaving before Kaoru or Yahiko had roused from their sleep. Kenshin had decided to forego saying goodbye. He'd made the mistake the last time he left of telling Kaoru he was leaving and she'd followed him all the way to Kyoto. This time, he wasn't taking that chance. There would be no trail for her to trace to him. He would disappear and while she would grieve, he knew that she would live on without him.

Sano walked beside him, silent in the chill morning air. He was nowhere near a morning person and conversation was the last thing he wanted to indulge in.

That was fine with Kenshin. He preferred silence to empty words. He absently fingered the symbol around his neck, wondering what it meant. Whatever it was, it was important enough that his master had told him to keep it concealed. The village they were heading towards was sure to be like no one they'd ever met. Knowing that frightened him, forcing him to caution he hadn't relied upon for years in the path he chose as they walked, but in a deeper part of himself, he was looking forward to meeting them.

The people of Tokyo and Kyoto were nice enough, but they weren't able to understand him or what drove him to live the way he did. Even Saito, his old Bakumatsu enemy, didn't understand why he lived without killing. The Wolf didn't know how hard it was to keep those instincts at bay or the fear he lived with every day that he would flip his blade on someone who didn't deserve it.

In part of his mind, he knew that he went too far in his effort not to kill. Just look at the fiasco with Shishio. If Kenshin had been more willing to flip his blade and fight with his all, the way he had in the past, they wouldn't have had as much trouble with Shishio and his men as they had. But Kenshin let his fear rule him and refused to turn the blade against the worst hitokori Japan had ever produced. He'd even gone so far as to get his master to teach him the final Mitsurugi Ryu technique, a technique that was so deadly it nearly ended up being fatal with his sakabatou.

Kenshin sighed, picking his way idly through a clump of heavy brush, amused when he heard Sano swear behind him. Sometimes it paid to be short.

"So tell me," Sano said, yanking the brush out of his way, "why we're traveling through the forest like this instead of taking the road."

Kenshin flushed. He'd gotten so caught up in his thoughts that he hadn't even noticed that he'd diverted them from the main road. "Force of habit," he murmured, feeling slightly embarrassed.

"Habit?" Sano raised an eyebrow. "I've never seen you choose a forest over a road before."

"It's the way I got to Kyoto," Kenshin said. He didn't want to discuss why he had a fondness for forest routes. The reason was born of the Bakumatsu, after all, and that was a past he'd tried to leave behind him.

Sano, of course, wasn't going to let him get away with it. "The woods? You walked through the woods all the way to Kyoto? Are you mad?"

"I didn't get lost," Kenshin said, defensive.

"Considering that you're here in front of me, I'd say that much is obvious," Sano said.

Kenshin winced. He hadn't meant to force Sano into sarcasm. The man could get mean with it if the mood struck him right. "It's a habit left over from the revolution," he said, in way of apology. "I was sent after important men. Guards posted on the main roads made them unwise to travel."

"The revolution is over," Sano said. He left unsaid that with it over, Kenshin shouldn't be falling back into habits formed over ten years ago.

"I was thinking."

"Hard enough to wander into the forest?" Sano's disbelief was palpable.

Kenshin shrugged, suddenly uncomfortable. He hadn't wanted Sano to see how much the Bakumatsu still affected him this soon. It was inevitable that the man would see it eventually, but for him to find out on the first day of their journey was almost too much for him. "We can go back to the road if you want," he offered.

Sano stared at him for a long moment, his hands stilling from where he'd been working on getting through the heavy brush. He frowned, looking down at his hands and then back at Kenshin. "Will this get us there faster?" he asked.

Kenshin pulled from memory the map leading to the village. While he'd learned during the Bakumatsu that forest paths tended to be faster than main roads, they often offered hazards that could slow you down. And sometimes they were slower, if they were heavy with brush the way this one seemed to be. After a few minutes of studying it, he shook his head. "We'll cut out around ten minutes of travel time this way, but if this brush gets much thicker it'll add time."

Sano nodded. "Back to the road, then."

Kenshin swallowed, then shook his head. "I'd rather not, Sano. Even with the quicker time, I don't like roads much."

Sano just looked at him, then turned and began walking towards the main road. "Tell me the name of the town I'm walking to and I'll meet you there," he called, not bothering to turn around as he spoke.

"Mitaka," Kenshin said, numb. He stared after his friend in disbelief. Had that really just happened? He stared at the brush in front of him and pulled his sakabatou free of it, sliding it back into its sheath. While he'd planned to go on this journey alone, now that he had Sano's company, he was reluctant to lose it so soon.

He caught up to Sano and settled into an uneasy silence that stretched between them as they made their way back to the main road. Kenshin had never allowed anyone else to decide the path he walked, either literally or figuratively. In a way, that scared him. It meant he was responsible for every kill he'd ever made. He'd been the one to accept the mantle of a hitokori when he could have rejected it. His ideals hadn't allowed him the comfort of rejection.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter Three**

Kenshin stared at Sano's back as they walked, wondering why his master had given the mercenary a symbol similar to the one he'd given Kenshin. What had his master seen in Sano, to give him such a thing?

Kenshin fingered the necklace, aware that the gesture was starting to become a habit. The village they were going to-why was it such a secret? Part of him worried about going to such a secluded place; he'd had enough of them during his days as a hitokori.

But his master wouldn't send Kenshin to a place where his apprentice wouldn't thrive. Knowing that alleviated some of Kenshin's worry and allowed him to be intrigued, instead. What possible reason could an entire village have to hide its very existence?

All his master had told him was to throw away his idealism because it wouldn't serve him. That was before the fiasco with Makato Shishio, before Kenshin had been slapped in the face with the truth that the insistence on living with his ideals was going to get somebody killed.

That realization had stirred him into action. Kenshin couldn't wait around for any more of his enemies to seek him out. He couldn't lead them to Karou and Yahiko, two innocent civilians who'd been dragged into more than their share of battles because of him. There weren't enough fingers on his hands to count how many times he'd nearly gotten the two of them killed.

Sano, too, for that matter. But Kenshin didn't feel guilty about getting the mercenary involved in his fights. Sano had been a solider. He'd seen the horrors of the Revolution with his own eyes; there was no innocence for him to taint.

And Sano could handle himself. He was the first man since the Revolution ended that Kenshin trusted implicitly to have his back in a fight.

When he considered that fact, it made a certain amount of sense that Sano had been given a symbol similar to his. Their necklaces would serve as passage into the village; an entryway into a new life.

The thought both excited him and filled him with dread. He'd worked hard to live a life free of killing since the incident with Tomoe. He shuddered. Now wasn't the time to think of that. There were things about his past Sano didn't know, Tomoe included, and Kenshin found himself disinclined to share.

"How far are we from Mitaka?" Sano asked, shielding his eyes as he looked at the sky to gauge the time.

Kenshin shrugged. "About two hours," he said. "We'll have to take a boat from there."

"To where?" Sano asked.

"Ujina."

Sano scowled. "Where exactly is this village located anyway?"

Kenshin ignored the scowl. "It's about three days out of Ujina, according to the map."

"But there's nothing out there!"

Kenshin raised an eyebrow. "I think that's rather the point."

Sano flushed. "Fine," he said. "But I'll have you know I hate boats."

"You and me both," Kenshin muttered. He didn't tell Sano that the reason he disliked boats was because they were difficult to fight on. The two of them had fought on a boat before and he'd almost lost his life because of it. He'd surrendered to the bandits then to keep Karou alive and he'd do it again.

But that fight wasn't the cause of his dislike of boats. There'd been a fight during the Revolution on a boat. One that had nearly cost him his life because he hadn't been a strong swimmer and his enemy had gotten the upper hand on him and thrown him overboard. Needless to say, he'd spent two months after it happened honing his ability to swim. It was a skill, once learned, that had saved his life more often than he could remember.

Sano spoke, voice quiet. "My father died on a boat, along with my little brother. I never knew them."

Kenshin winced. He placed a consoling hand on Sano's shoulder. "I'm sorry," he said. "If there was another way to get there, we'd take it. I prefer land over water, that I do."

Sano smiled at the appearance of Kenshin's odd dialect. "It's a short ferry, isn't it?" he asked, forcing lightness he didn't feel into the words.

"Aa," Kenshin said. "Three hours."

Sano frowned at the sky. "We won't get into Mitaka before nightfall." He nodded once, then moved off the path and into the woods. Once he found an acceptable area, he laid out his bedding and started gathering wood for a fire. "We might as well make camp for the night."

Kenshin nodded his agreement and began helping gather firewood. Truthfully, he was relieved. The less he had to deal with townspeople, the better. His sword caused enough of a stir during the day, despite having the government's permission to carry it. He didn't want to risk a green policeman in the middle of the night attempting to arrest him for possessing it.

"So three days from now, we'll be at this village," Sano said. "Do you have any idea what to do when we get there?"

Kenshin shrugged. "My master only said that these-" he lifted the necklace, "would be the key to granting us passage. Other than that, I'm going into this blind."

Sano chuckled. "It doesn't seem like you," he said.

"What doesn't?"

"Going blind into something like t his," Sano said. "You're usually the person who's prepared for anything."

Kenshin gave him a tight smile. "Maybe it's time that changed," he said.

"Maybe," Sano said, and let out a yawn. "I'll guess we'll see when we get there."

"Aa," Kenshin said, feeling a twinge of unease. "I guess we will."


End file.
